Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust
Type of Trust | |
---|---|
NHS hospital trust | |
Trust Details | |
Last annual budget | |
Employees | 5000 |
Chair | Ben Reid OBE |
Chief Executive | Simon Wright |
Links | |
Website | Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital |
Care Quality Commission reports | CQC |
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is the main provider of hospital services for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and North Powys. It runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, Oswestry Maternity Unit, and Wrekin Community Clinic, Euston House, Telford, in Shropshire, England. It is one of a small number of English NHS Trusts which takes patients from over the border in Wales.
As with many Trusts operating over multiple sites it has long been under pressure to concentrate services on fewer sites.[1] In 2012, general and vascular surgery was successfully centralised at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. In 2014, consultant obstetrics and inpatients paediatrics was centralised at the Princess Royal Hospital. In November 2017 it was agreed that emergency services at Princess Royal Hospital should be downgraded and moved to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.[2] A large-scale programme of hospital reconfiguration in Shropshire called FutureFit has been in progress since 2013. In March 2018, the Department of Health and Social Care gave the go-ahead to more than £300 million worth of funding for the transformation of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. The plans are due to go out to public consultation in May 2018.[3]
The trust was one of five in England to benefit from a five-year, £12.5m programme announced by Jeremy Hunt in July 2015 to bring in Virginia Mason Medical Center to assist English hospitals using their clinical engagement and culture tools including the Patient Safety Alert System and electronic dashboard. Hunt said “The achievements at Virginia Mason over the past decade are truly inspirational and I’m delighted they will now help NHS staff to learn the lessons that made their hospital one of the safest in the world – patients will see real benefits as a result.”
Services
The Trust’s main service locations are the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, which together provide 99% of its activity.[4] Both hospitals provide a wide range of acute hospital services including accident & emergency, outpatients, diagnostics, inpatient medical care, trauma and orthopaedics and critical care .Currently inpatient general and vascular surgery is provided at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. In patients paediatrics, gynaecology and consultant-led obstetrics are provided from the Princess Royal Hospital Site. Alongside services at the Princess Royal Hospital, Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, the Trust also provides community and outreach services such as Consultant-led outreach clinics (including the Wrekin Community Clinic at Euston House in Telford); Midwife-led units at Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Oswestry; Renal dialysis outreach services at Ludlow Hospital; Community services including midwifery, audiology and therapies.
Performance
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital is rated as Requires Improvement by the Care Quality Commission. However, medical care is rated as ‘good’ at both hospitals and the Trust is also rated ‘good’ for caring and effectiveness, with inspectors saying they saw examples of good care on every ward and department they visited. The Trust is one of the best performing in the country against the 18-week target for planned care[5], waits for diagnostic tests and cancer treatment, but performance against the four-hour A&E waiting standard is among the worst[5], with hospital officials blaming the duplication of services across two small A&E departments for problems in staff recruitment.
The Trust was criticised in a report into the death of Kate Stanton-Davies, who was born in a midwifery led unit in Ludlow in March 2009.[6]
The trust was one of 44 across Britain identified by the Care Quality Commission in 2013 as "high risk" for patients, although it was not among the 24 placed in the highest band of risk.[7]
In January 2014 it was forced to look to the NHS Trust Development Authority for £4 million on the basis that the trust would be able to balance its budget by the end of March but Board member Dennis Jones said the bailout would not solve the underlying financial problems at the trust, which has been running at a loss over several years.[8] In January 2017 it was reported that its financial troubles were such that its sandwich supplier refused to accept delayed payments.[9]
The Trust did poorly in the 2015 cancer patient experience survey and has agreed to pair up with St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which did very well, in a scheme intended to “spread and accelerate innovative practice via peer to peer support and learning”.[10] [11] It was singled out by the West Midlands Ambulance Service as one of two in the region responsible for the most serious delays in ambulance turn around times in 2016.[12] In 2017-2018 only 74.6% of A&E patients were seen within four hours.[13][14].
The Trust fared well in recent CQC surveys for Children and Young People’s Inpatient experience[15] and experiences of midwifery services[16].
There is concern over deaths or serious injuries to mothers and babies possibly due to poor care at a maternity unit.[17] A Care Quality Commission inspection in the last week of August 2018 raised concerns about staff shortages and poor patient care. Urgent enforcement action is being taken.[18] In the years to 2018 there have been six different inquiries into maternity care at the trust, one was by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In 2017 the Care Quality Commission rated the trust as one that “requires improvement”. There were concerns over too few medical staff, not meeting the national target to admit, transfer or discharge 95% of patients within four hours after they arrive in A&E and ambulance handover times fell routinely below national standards.[19]
The trust announced in September 2018 that Princess Royal Hospital Accident and Emergency Department would shut from 8pm to 8am for the next six months because of staff shortages.[20]
See also
References
- ^ "Growing concern over NHS services shake-up in Shropshire". Shropshire Star. 21 October 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
- ^ "Long delayed hospital reconfiguration gets green light". Health Service Journal. 20 November 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
- ^ "SaTH News Item".
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(help) - ^ "Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust Website".
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(help) - ^ a b "BBC Health Tracker".
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(help) - ^ "Trust's poor culture and defensive attitude criticised after baby death". Health Service Journal. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
- ^ "Officials defend Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals over 'at risk' list". Shropshire Star. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
- ^ "Shropshire hospitals in plea for £4 million bailout". Shropshire Star. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
- ^ "Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals 'struggling to pay sandwich bill'". BBC News. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
- ^ "'Pioneering' cancer care buddying scheme launched". Health Service Journal. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
- ^ "US corporation brought in to help improve five trusts". Nursing Times. 16 July 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ "Trust sought millions in compensation for 'horrendous' handover delays". Health Service Journal. 23 January 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
- ^ The 10 worst A&Es for waits revealed BBC
- ^ "CQC Report".
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(help) - ^ "CQC Children and Young People Report".
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(help) - ^ "CQC Maternity Report".
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(help) - ^ Further deaths feared at NHS maternity unit subject to investigation The Guardian
- ^ 'Urgent action' at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital trust BBC
- ^ Urgent action taken at NHS trust facing baby death inquiry The Guardian
- ^ "Midlands A&E to close overnight as they can 'no long rely on the goodwill of staff'". Nursing Notes. 30 September 2018. Retrieved 30 September 2018.